Electric furnace



(No Model.)

J. E. HEWES. ELECTRIC FURNACE.

No. 595,712. Patented De0.21,189'7.

WITNESSES: msA/Vmm ATT'Y.

, PHo-muwu WASNINGTON, 0. L

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 595,712, dated December 21, 1897.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I,JAMEs ELLICOTT l-lnwEs, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

Objects of my invention are, first, to provide a self-stoking furnace for making calcium carbid, and, second, to provide a furnace for making amorphous calcium carbid.

In my invention use is made of means for continuously moving a suspended pencil or electrode, thus stoking the superimposed or surrounding material into the path of the electric current or arc.

My invention comprises the improvements hereinafter described and claimed.

The nature, characteristic features, and scope of my invention will be more fully understood from the following description,taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, forming part hereof, and in which I have illustrated, partly in central section and partly in elevation, a furnace embodying features of my invention.

The principle of my invention comprises feeding material into the are or path of the electric current by imparting motion of reciprocation to one of the electrodes, whereby the material is agitated and gravitates into the position named and whereby amorphous calcium carbid is produced, although there may be a few crystals in it-that is to say, the agitation during process of formation prevents, substantially, crystallization.

I shall now proceed to describe, in connection with the accompanying drawing, the best means known to me for practicing my invention.

In the drawing, a is a receptacle which may be made of ordinary brick. The lining may be a loose mixture of lime and carbon. The bottom of this receptacle may comprise an iron plate. This receptacle is adapted to contain the material to be heated.

Z) and c are the terminals or electrodes of an electric circuit 1) c, that includes a source of electric energy, as (Z. The electrode 1) is the iron plate above referred to, and the other electrode may be of carbon and may be pro Application filed April 2'7, 1897. Serial No. 634,065. (No model.)

vided with aholder. The electrode 0 is sometimes designated a pencil, and is suspended, for example, by means of a cord (2, from which it is insulated.

f is a counterweight, and g is a screw. The screw 9 cooperates with a nut carried by a hand-wheel h, held against all motion except turning, for example, by means of the collars 71/. When the wheel 7?. is rotated, the cord 6 is drawn over its pulleys and serves to raise or lower the pencil c. The wheel h and its described accessories are designated a regulator.

2' is an eccentric that operates upon the pencil 0 through the intervention of the cord that passes over it. This ecccentric 1' is mounted on a shaft i, to which rotary motion is imparted, for example, by means of the pulley In use material, such as coke and li1ne,is introduced into the receptacle a, and in such case carbid of calcium is of course produced. The pencil c is manipulated, by means of the hand-wheel h, for the production of the proper heating effect, for example, so as to produce an arc and then be gradually raised. During this operation the shaft e", and with it the eccentric 1', is rotated, so that the pencil c is constantly moved up and down. The up-and down motion of the pencilc agitates the powdered material in the receptacle a and causes it to gravitate under the pencil into the path of the current, so that the operation of stoking is mechanically effected. The described motion of the pencil constantly agitatesthe mass beneath it, so that the carbid formed does not crystallize as it does in many existing furnaces, although there may, of course, be formed a few crystals in it, The amorphous calcium carbid resulting from the described motions of the pencil c is not so pure as is the crystalline calcium carbid formed by known processes; but with this amorphous calcium carbid the gas yield per horse-power perhour will be just as great as with the crys talline carbid above referred to, because the agitation of the pencil 0 will result in the production of more amorphous carbid per horsepower per hour than is produced in known furnaces making crystalline carbid.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art to which my invention appertains thatmodifications may be made in details without departing from the spirit thereof. Hence I do not limit myself to the precise construction and arrangement of parts hereinabove set forth, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings; but,

Having thus described the nature and objects of my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In combination a receptacle provided with an electrode, a second electrode mounted in the receptacle and having a space around it for the introduction of material, circuit connections for the electrodes, a regulator for said second electrode, and means interposed between the regulator and second 

